How to Share Location Between iPhone and Android (Both Directions)

You can share location between iPhone and Android, just not through Apple’s Find My. The free method that works in both directions is Google Maps location sharing: on either phone, open Google Maps, tap your profile picture → Location sharing → New share, choose how long, and pick the other person’s Google account. For a single journey, an iPhone can also text its ETA to an Android phone from Apple Maps.

Below: which method to use when, step-by-step instructions for both directions (iPhone to Android and Android to iPhone), the settings that keep sharing alive in the background, and how to stop.

Why Find My can’t share with Android (and what can)

Find My is where most iPhone owners start, and where most get stuck. Apple’s support page spells out the requirement: “To share Live Location, both you and the person that you’re sharing with need an iPhone with iOS 15 or later.” So whether you set it up through Family Sharing or Find My’s People tab, an Android user can’t follow your location there, and you can’t follow theirs.

Apple makes one exception. When you share an ETA from Apple Maps, Apple says “People using other mobile devices receive an SMS message.” That’s good for “I’m on my way”, but it covers one journey, not ongoing sharing.

What does cross the divide is Google’s location sharing. Google publishes the same steps for Android and for iPhone, so it runs in Google Maps on both phones and, on Android, in the Find Hub app as well. Galaxy-only households can use Samsung Find, and families who want everyone on one private map can use a family locator app.

Which method should you use?

Pick by how long you want to share and how many people are involved.

Share location between iPhone and Android with Google Maps

This is the most flexible free option for a mixed household: it works in both directions and it can run indefinitely. Check two things first. You need to be signed in to Google Maps, and the other person’s Gmail address must be in your Google Contacts. As Google’s help page puts it, “The Location Sharing recipient must have a Gmail account.”

iPhone to Android

1. Install Google Maps on the iPhone if it isn’t there already, and sign in with your Google account.
2. Tap your profile picture → Location sharing → New share.
3. Choose how long. For ongoing sharing, pick Until you turn this off.
4. Pick the person, then tap Share.
5. When iOS asks, let Google Maps use your location, then follow the background settings below so it keeps updating when the app is closed.

On the Android phone, your location shows up in Google Maps. Find Hub uses the same Google Location Sharing, so it’s there too.

Android to iPhone

1. On the Android phone, open Google Maps and tap your profile picture → Location sharing → New share. (You can also start it from Find Hub, covered below.)
2. Choose a duration, pick the iPhone user’s Gmail address, and tap Share.
3. On the iPhone, the other person opens Google Maps, signed in with that Google account, to see you.

If they don’t have a Google account, you can send a link instead. Google’s limit: “Your real-time location can be shared with people who have this link for up to 24 hours.” Fine for a day out, not for ongoing family sharing.

What the other person sees

Google says the people you share with can see your name and photo, your device’s recent location “even when Google apps aren’t being used”, your battery level and whether you’re charging, and your arrival and departure times if they set a notification. One detail surprises people: “Location Sharing works even when Timeline is turned off,” so turning off Timeline doesn’t stop sharing.

Share a single trip instead

For one journey, start navigation in Google Maps, swipe up and tap Share trip progress. Sharing stops on its own when you arrive or end navigation.

On Android: share and get alerts in Find Hub

In May 2025 Google renamed Find My Device to Find Hub and gave it a People tab for real-time location sharing. It rolled out to phones running Android 6 and later. It isn’t a separate system: shares you start in Google Maps show up in Find Hub, and stopping a share stops it in every app that uses Google Location Sharing. On iPhone, use Google Maps for the same thing.

1. Open Find Hub, go to People and tap Start share.
2. Choose One hour, Until the end of the day (11:59 PM), Until you stop the share, or a custom duration.
3. Pick the person. Link shares can’t use “Until you stop”.

Arrival and leaving notifications

Find Hub added location notifications in May 2026. For anyone sharing with you, go to People → [person] → Get location notifications → Add a location notification, choose Arrives and/or Leaves, and adjust the radius. Google Maps on Android offers the same idea, with “Every time they arrive” and “Every time they depart” options and up to 5 notifications per person.

The person sharing gets an email when you set one up, and Google says alerts won’t work if their phone is offline, their location is off, or they’re under 13. Because an iPhone user can share with you through Google Maps, this is how an Android user can know when an iPhone-using partner or parent gets home. Our guide on how to get notified when someone arrives or leaves covers every option, including Find My’s.

Temporary shares for a trip or an afternoon

From an iPhone: Share ETA in Apple Maps

1. In Maps, search for a place and tap Go.
2. Tap the route card, then Share ETA, and choose who to send it to. If the option is missing, turn it on in Settings → Apps → Maps.

It works for driving, cycling and walking directions, and the ETA updates automatically if there are major delays. iPhone recipients on iOS 13.1 or later get a Maps notification; people on other phones get a text. A handy trick: add a contact to a pinned place such as Home, and Maps shares your ETA with them each time you navigate there.

From either phone: a timed Google share

For a festival, a school trip pick-up or a day out, use a timed share in Google Maps, or in Find Hub on Android, where the options are one hour, the end of the day, or a custom time. It ends on its own, so there’s nothing to remember to switch off.

Galaxy-only families: Samsung Find

If everyone has a Samsung Galaxy, Samsung Find has its own People tab: tap Add, pick a Family group member or enter a name, number or email, then choose 1 hour, 24 hours or Indefinitely. You need a Samsung account, the recipient needs Samsung Find installed, and you can’t add more than five additional people to a family group. Samsung’s requirements list only Galaxy phones and tablets on One UI 2 or later. Samsung says you can send a link to someone who doesn’t have Samsung Find, but it doesn’t describe how that link behaves on an iPhone, so test it before you rely on it.

Sharing with a whole mixed family: use a family locator app

One-to-one shares work well for two or three people. Beyond that it gets fiddly: in Google Maps each person picks who they share with, and arrival notifications are set up person by person, up to five each. A family locator app turns that around. Everyone joins one private group, sees one map and shares one set of places.

For a mixed family, check three things before you choose: the app is on both Google Play and the App Store, everyone installs it on their own phone and agrees to share, and anyone can pause sharing. Our roundup of the best free family locator apps compares the options.

GPSforFamily is our take on this: a private family circle on one map, with each person’s battery level, charging and network status, safe places with arrival and departure alerts, a timeline of today’s arrivals and departures, and an SOS that alerts your circle (it doesn’t contact emergency services). It’s free, with no ads or subscriptions, and people join by email invite or with a 6-character code that a circle admin has to approve. It’s on Android now, with the iPhone app coming soon. So today, Google Maps is the way to include the iPhone users in a mixed family, and everyone can move into one private family circle once the iPhone app is out.

Keep it updating in the background (iPhone and Android)

Most “it stopped updating” complaints come down to permissions and battery savers on the phone that’s sharing. Whichever app you use, check these. Menu names vary a little by phone maker and OS version.

On iPhone

1. Go to Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services, tap the sharing app, choose Always, and leave Precise Location on. With Precise Location off, the app only gets an approximate position.
2. If you chose While Using, iOS may later ask whether the app can use your location in the background. iOS also reminds you from time to time that an app is using location in the background, with a map of where. That’s normal; keep allowing it if you want sharing to continue.
3. Make sure Settings → General → Background App Refresh isn’t set to Off.
4. Don’t swipe the app away in the app switcher. Apple warns that a quit app “might not be able to run or check for new content before you open it again.”
5. Watch Low Power Mode, which turns off Background App Refresh. It’s at Settings → Battery → Power Mode → Low Power Mode on iPhone 15 and later, and Settings → Battery → Low Power Mode on iPhone 14 and earlier.

On Android

1. Go to Settings → Location → App location permissions, tap the app, and choose Allow all the time. Turn on Use precise location too (Android 12 and later). Since Android 11 the permission pop-up no longer offers “Allow all the time”; Android’s developer documentation says users “must enable background location on a settings page”, which is why apps send you there.
2. Let it run in the background. On a Pixel, go to Settings → Apps → See all apps → [app] → App battery usage → Allow background usage. Android’s battery levels are Unrestricted, Optimized (the default) and Restricted, which “fully prevents an app from running in the background”.
3. On a Samsung, open Settings → Battery → Background usage limits, make sure the app isn’t in Sleeping apps or Deep sleeping apps, and turn off Put unused apps to sleep. Otherwise, according to dontkillmyapp.com, Samsung puts apps back to sleep after a few days.
4. On Android 13 and later, turn off Pause app activity if unused for the app, or Android may reset its permissions after a few months without use.

GPSforFamily, for example, runs a location service on Android that shows a persistent notification. That’s Android making a running location service visible, not an error. For the full checklist, see our guides to fixing location sharing that isn’t updating and how much battery location sharing really uses.

How to stop sharing or check who can see you

It’s worth reviewing who can see you every few months, and especially after a breakup, a new phone, or a trip where you shared with friends.

• Google Maps (iPhone or Android): tap your profile picture → Location sharing to see your shares, then pick a person to stop sharing with them. Stopping a share in Maps or Find Hub stops it in every app that uses Google Location Sharing.
• Find Hub: your shares appear in the People tab, including ones you started in Google Maps.
• Find My: turning off Share My Location in the Me tab stops sharing with everyone. For your family group, go to Settings → Family → Location Sharing (older guides say Settings → [your name] → Family Sharing). Apple says stopping with one person doesn’t notify them, and that deleting the Find My app does not stop sharing.
• Samsung Find: manage shares in the People tab on your Galaxy phone; it isn’t available on the Samsung Find website.
• GPSforFamily: pause any time in More → Share my location (while paused, the server ignores any location it receives from your account), leave a circle from the More tab, or delete your account in More → Delete account. The details are in our privacy policy.